Can't Get You Out of My Head

I would recommend watching no more than one episode per day. There is a grand narrative there that's tied up neatly in the final episode. As always Curtis drivers an interesting collection of stories to feed your imagination and provoke. Documentary as art. Superb

Schitzophrenic, complex, profound and revealing. Seemingly unrelated stories intertwine with others to tell new stories if their own. Reality and fantasy intertwine and influence eachother on an international scale. I've only learned of Alex Curtis recently, but I can comfortably say he's a creative genius.

The tapestry that sits protected within its depressurised security glass seems enchantingly rich and lush, but when it's no longer attended to then it suddenly and rapidly begins to wither away until just the slightest wind is enough to detach the fibres into nothing more than a flailing and ruined mess. The same thing that captivated you suddenly becomes indistinct from anything else you saw before it... 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' is a work of art that is mesmerising just as much as it is troubling. As a Brit that has suffered in what I would call an 'empty meaningless life' then I recognise everything that Adam Curtis is divulging to us and from the merest mention of its subject matter until it's inevitable conclusion. This docu-series could of been told in an invariable amount of different ways and yet this 'mini-encyclopedia of reality' strikes chords that make it feel and seem so damned evidently true. A masterful production edited in AC's typical 'shock therapy fashion'. My advice is simply turn off the lights, get comfortable, and join the dots. Note: The BBC deserve a big shout out for showing this. They themselves could be guilty of using subterfuge and/or reverse psychology in playing this but whatever, 'props' are due because I thoroughly enjoyed this...

The good: The individual stories, especially in the first part, are superbly interesting. Many other montage parts are informative, some are mesmerizing to look at and listen to, and the overall feel of the documentary series is almost hypnotic. The issue I have with it though are its generalizations and some of the conclusions and supposed insights, which are sometimes obvious, and sometimes just derived out of flimsy reasoning, derived from somewhat dubious or arbitrary premises.

The individual/collective dichotomy is strained at best, and could be challenged by many alternative arguments in the context of history and sociology. The technology part is interesting, but there is nothing new there. The political commentaries are also standard issue and a bit all over the place. The conspiracies narrative, again, selective and based on certain opinions and aspects, ignoring others, which is the approach in the film overall. That's fine it it is supposed to show only the author's POV, but here it seems to aspire to reveal some deep universal truths, and in that it fails through a faulty - or deliberately tendentious - methodology.

Overall, it's a fascinating series, but I think the author overreached in his ambition to tell a grand narrative that explains everything.

This is dense and at times feels all over the place, but it comes together and you'll have moments of sublime horror and comedy on the journey. It's cynical and dark at times but illuminating and powerful at the same time. Great soundtrack too!